SureClad® Surestone® cladding system at Gresham St Paul's

Gresham St Paul’s, City of London

Specified by: Wilkinson Eyre

Project Overview

Gresham St Paul’s on Gresham Street in the City of London underwent a £50 million transformation, delivered by Mace. Designed by leading architectural practice, Wilkinson Eyre, the project has maximised the building’s net internal area with an extensive remodelling programme, and added a three-storey extension at roof level.

Gresham St Paul’s radical transformation elevates it to the contemporary standards of Cat A office accommodation expected by corporate occupiers. Effectively, the project has created an entirely new building within the existing shell, delivering a contemporary BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rated development.

Design Requirements

The building’s existing Portland stone facade was been retained and simplified with aluminium in-fill panels. The design intent was to carry through the materiality of the existing Portland stone to the three-storey extension, however, the possibility of using Portland stone was discounted early in the specification process.

The architect needed to find a cladding material that would reference the existing building and answer planning requirements, while working within the loading parameters of the original structure and meeting a series of criteria; look and feel, cost, fire safety, weathering, green credentials and mechanical suitability. The design team also considered a number of reference projects, which included Axtell House, where Shackerley’s SureClad^® SureStone^® facade system was used for the façades of additional storeys to co-ordinate with the original building’s Portland Stone.

Shackerley’s SureClad^® SureStone^® cladding system offered a viable solution for the buildability challenges of working at height on a confined site in the City. Mace’s strategy was to install the facade as a modular system, with each prefabricated facade section delivered to site as an installation-ready unitised facade module that could be craned into position and secured in place. A successful collaboration between Shackerley, and Austrian facade specialist, GIG Fassaden, resulted in a bespoke prefabricated modular facade installation scheme to aid speed, ease and safety of installation. The united cladding modules were delivered to site on a just-in-time basis and installed aligned to the wider construction programme.

Materials Used

Shackerley’s SureClad^® SureStone^® cladding system was used in a creamy beige 'Valpolicella' colourway and a sandblasted finish. The large format panels were 3050 x 1240mm and just 30mm thick, providing the visual impact of large pieces of stone with a lightweight facade solution.

Thanks to Shackerley’s technical expertise and ISO 9001 certified manufacturing capabilities, both the SureClad^® SureStone^® large format cladding panels and the 400 modular facade units required for the project were produced at one of Shackerley’s Lancashire factories.

The custom-designed modular facade units utilised Shackerley’s tried and tested undercut anchor and bolt fixing system, with the panels secured directly onto an aluminium frame, designed and supplied by GIG Fassaden.